According to the source, the WNBA was founded in 1996. The WNBA consists of fourteen teams, is more mature in terms of age than the NBA, and has an ethnic makeup of approximately sixty percent African-American and forty percent of Caucasian players. Based on WNBA statistics, over ninety percent of the players have earned a bachelor’s degree from a four-year institution and twenty percent have earned graduate degrees. This culture of education, which in essence requires WNBA players’ to earn college degrees, is in stark contrast to the WNBA players’ peers in the NBA, NFL, MLB, and the NHL.
In its early years, American women’s professional basketball was filled with various short-lived ventures. After generations of men’s professional basketball leagues operating without female counterpart, two women’s professional basketball leagues burst onto the scene in the late 1970s: the Ladies Professional Basketball Association and the Women’s Professional Basketball League. Both leagues were defunct by 1981.
Both the LPBA and the WBL struggled from the very beginning because of their high salaries, low sponsorship revenues, and team owners without significant investment income. Unlike the NBA neither female professional basketball league had the benefit of a television contract. Without regular television revenues, neither league was able to turn a profit.
Unlike the ABL, the WNBA planned to compete during a ten week season in the summer. Also, the WNBA model enjoyed the immediate advantage of being backed by the NBA, a well fortified American business with powerful management. On June 28, 1996 a full year before the first WNBA season was to begin, the WNBA entered into a five year primetime television pacts with ESPN and the Lifetime Network. Meanwhile, ABL television coverage was limited to just twelve Sunday night games on Sports Channel.
The WNBA meanwhile opened its inaugural season on June 21, 1997, with the fanfare of an NBA marketing blitz. The league placed teams in New York, Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City. Former Vice President Val Ackerman was promoted to the position of the league’s first commissioner. Nike, Coca-Cola, and American Express all signed on as premier league sponsors. In the WNBA model, player salaries were kept below the average ABL salary rate, and the WNBA initially implemented a league-wide salary cap on all players’ contracts at $50,000.
Fifty Logos were considered for the official WNBA logo. The image of a women dribbling a basketball that was red, white, and blue was changed slightly each time. The logo was finally chosen from three different poses from different players. The WNBA companies design everything from dresses and skirts to unitards and jumpers. They designed on a f
ew models of shorts and jerseys designed towards the female body.
In its early years, American women’s professional basketball was filled with various short-lived ventures. After generations of men’s professional basketball leagues operating without female counterpart, two women’s professional basketball leagues burst onto the scene in the late 1970s: the Ladies Professional Basketball Association and the Women’s Professional Basketball League. Both leagues were defunct by 1981.
Both the LPBA and the WBL struggled from the very beginning because of their high salaries, low sponsorship revenues, and team owners without significant investment income. Unlike the NBA neither female professional basketball league had the benefit of a television contract. Without regular television revenues, neither league was able to turn a profit.
Unlike the ABL, the WNBA planned to compete during a ten week season in the summer. Also, the WNBA model enjoyed the immediate advantage of being backed by the NBA, a well fortified American business with powerful management. On June 28, 1996 a full year before the first WNBA season was to begin, the WNBA entered into a five year primetime television pacts with ESPN and the Lifetime Network. Meanwhile, ABL television coverage was limited to just twelve Sunday night games on Sports Channel.
The WNBA meanwhile opened its inaugural season on June 21, 1997, with the fanfare of an NBA marketing blitz. The league placed teams in New York, Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City. Former Vice President Val Ackerman was promoted to the position of the league’s first commissioner. Nike, Coca-Cola, and American Express all signed on as premier league sponsors. In the WNBA model, player salaries were kept below the average ABL salary rate, and the WNBA initially implemented a league-wide salary cap on all players’ contracts at $50,000.
Fifty Logos were considered for the official WNBA logo. The image of a women dribbling a basketball that was red, white, and blue was changed slightly each time. The logo was finally chosen from three different poses from different players. The WNBA companies design everything from dresses and skirts to unitards and jumpers. They designed on a f
ew models of shorts and jerseys designed towards the female body.
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